The Fire of Midnight
by anniesparrow
Summary: Serenity encounters it's greatest adventure yet.
1. Chapter 1

Hum. Hum. Hum. The gentle pulsating roar of serenity's engine may be a nuisance for many. Passengers, guests, even several crewmembers complained frequently that the noise made by the ship was like water torture, keeping them up all night, preventing them from eating, crawling its way into their minds to prevent them from hearing their own thoughts. Even the ship's very own captain occasionally wished that he could get one singular moment of quiet from the constant, unbreaking noise.

The hum really did bother everyone, but one. Kaylee Frye. Ship engineer. Many nights (if you would really even call it nights when in space), Kaylee would sit in her bunk, and slowly let the noise lull her to sleep. The pulses of the gravitational simulator gave a soothing beat. The turns of the proton thrusters made a sweet melody. She would lie down, close her eyes, and listen to the soft composition of serenity. Except for one night.

Kaylee sat up in her bed, her back as straight and stiff as a wooden plank. She counted the sections of the composition over and over. The beat of the simulator. The melody of the thrusters. But there was something else, something she knew that shouldn't be there. A chime. A small clinking from the engine that was so subtle, anyone could easily miss it. Something so loud yet so quiet, so sweet yet so dangerous.

Then, out of nowhere, she felt a hand rest on her arm.

"Kaylee, its late. Go to sleep," sleepily muttered a soft voice. Simon. She turned to look at him, lying in the same bed beside her.

"What are you doing up?" He pressed, slowly waking up.

"Something aint right," She gulped, "Something's wrong with her"

"I'm sure everythings okay. Go to sleep," He muttered, slowly trailing off. Kaylee paused and took a breath.

"No… No this is definitely bad. Bad bad bad." She said, slightly louder.

"Mmherrrhmmm," Simon replied slowly.

"I'm gonna go see the captain." She said, as she got up and started walking to the door.

"Kayleeee," He called after her groggily. She was already gone, closing the door behind her and walking away from the artfully decorated sign depicting "Kaylee and Simon's room" on it.

When everyone was asleep on serenity, it gave the ship an aura of disturbance. Everything seemed slightly different without the familiar sound of conversation and footsteps echoing throughout the passages.

Kailee made her way down the erie staircase to the captain's quarters. She walked up to the door and then paused-ready to open the handle. The captain had never welcomed anyone entering his bunk-_especially_ when he was sleeping. Although, before she could open the door she heard fast paced footsteps behind her, nearing closer and closer.

Quickly, she reached for the gun at her holster and pointed it at whomever was nearing her.

"Whoah whoah Kaylee what the Dìyù are you doing up?" Wash looked at the gun, "And… apparently about to shoot me?" Kaylee put the gun back in her holster.

"Wash you shouldn't sneak up on me like that. I need to tell captain something...something important. Why are you here?" She asked, with sudden interest in what had brought him at such a late hour. Could it have been the noise as well?

"It's um… It's-uhhh… well to be honest I'm not entirely sure what it is," Wash said with a look of nervousness and suspicion. "But the captain needs to see it," he continued, "It's definitely… he needs to see it."

"Is it about the noise?" Kaylee asked.

"What noi-" Wash interrupted himself and shook off the question, "Doesn't matter. Not enough time."

Before Kaylee could stop him, Wash reached for the handle and pushed the thick iron door open. The two of them walked up to the captain, sleeping soundly in his bunk.

"Captain we have a situation," Wash said flatly. "Possibly two situations," Kaylee added.

Mal slowly woke up. Confused, he looked around his room and then looked at the two crewmembers with a puzzled look.

"Kaylee. Wash. What the Tā mā de are you doing here?! Do you know what time is is?!" He yelled at them angrily.

Walsh replied, "Look, I know you're mad-" Mal interrupted, "Damn straight I'm mad. You better have a rutting good reason for getting me up!"

"Trust me I do," Wash said.

"Then what is it?!"

"I- I just have to show you." Wash stumbled, "Just come to the bridge"

"Fine," Mal exhaled. Instead of getting up, he sat there for several moments, doing nothing. Kaylee and Wash glanced at each other, then back at their captain.

"Sir?" Wash hesitated.

"I'm waiting for you two to leave… I don't have any clothes on all right!" Mal said, not looking at them.

"Oh um- okay sir. Loud and clear," Wash said. As the two walked out the door, Wash leaned over to Kaylee and whispered, "Nothing we haven't seen before."

Kaylee and Wash waited outside the captain's quarters for a bit less than a minute. Eventually he came out, glanced at both of them, and then Wash began to lead them to the bridge. Even with the three of them marching through the ship, it was still incredible eerie. They reached the door the the bride. Wash looked at Kaylee and Mal with a look of worry, and then pushed open the door.

They couldn't move. What was seen outside of the ship was a sight so menacing. It was the one thing, the one thing in the entire galaxy that no ship would ever want to be mindly close to. A black hole.


	2. Chapter 2

Willow stared blankly at the ball of fire she had created in front of her face. She watched it intently as embers fell onto the carpet and smoke rose up from it. She was drunk. For the first time in a while, she sat on the floor, slumped against the lower part of the sofa, wasted.

"How much have you had to drink?" asked Kennedy sweetly, slumping down on the floor next to her and stifling a giggle, "Don't think I didn't notice, you get really contemplative when you're tipsy."

Willow looked over at Kennedy, letting the fire ball disappear into it's own smoke. She sighed, and let her face turn into a pout.

"Kennedy," She asked hoarsely, "Am I an old person?"

"Willow," Kennedy replied, smiling, "You're not old. Your turned 28 today, not 63. Your getting drunk with your friends, not watching the wheel of fortune," She laughed, "I think it's cute that you're all worried about it though"

Kennedy leaned over and kissed Willow on the cheek, who in return, let out a passive sigh.

"It's just that ever we came back to new Sunnydale, I feel like my life is so different from how it was. All of the times we have aren't ever going to happen. I'm just an old witch now," Willow wined.

"I'll get you a broom,"

"Huh?"

"I'll get you a broom. And a hat. And a wart, some green face paint, or one of those really unflattering black robe things. You might as well go all in," Kennedy let out with a smile.

Just then, Buffy entered the living room.

"Do I look old?" She said, crossing her arms.

"Not you too!" Xander (who had been sitting in the corner the whole time) exclaimed, "I've been listening to these two about their old age go on for what felt like a while. I do not need another girl complaining about their age. Nuh- uh."

"I just feel too young to have my baby sister be in college. And it's not helping that one of my best friends is wearing an eyepatch while the other talks about wheel of fortune,"

"Hey," Xander said confrontationally, "Don't bash the patch. Would you rather me not wear one?"

The room was silent for a moment, and then a series of uncomfortable murmur shook the room with a few shaking of heads.

"That's what I thought," Xander said, satisfied.

Giles and Robin entered the room, joining Buffy in the kitchen entrance.

"Ah," Giles said, putting on his glasses, "Did we miss the uncomfortable eyepatch allusions already?"

"Shoot," said Robin jokingly faking frustration, "It's my favorite part of the night."

"You know I-" Xander cut himself off. "Can you all hear that?"

They could. It was difficult not to. As Xander was speaking, a low, pulsating hum broke through the normal chatter of the Summer's household. The noise grew louder, sharper, deeper, and as it did so grew the curiosity and befuddlement of everyone in the house. They had dealt with every strange noise in the book, but this was certainly new to them.

"A demon? Maybe?" Buffy speculated.

"Whatever it is," Willow said cautiously, "It doesn't sound happy."

Just as the sound became too loud to bear, a tremendous crash broke the confusion in the room, transforming it into fear.

"There is zero chance that that was something good," Xander said nervously.

Kennedy rushed to the window, but when she reached it, froze in awe. Xander followed behind her, but instead just exhaled deeply and let out, "This will be a real treat."


	3. Chapter 3

It was almost like a painting. Something impressionist, like a Van Gogh. Swirls of many colors and beams of stupendous light, intertwining and connecting to make something bigger. Far and spread at first, and then convening closer and closer until they reached the center. A gaping hole of nothing. More nothing than anything anyone could possible imagine.

"Wash…" Mal asked slowly, still looking at the treacherous sight unblinking, "Next time this happens, please tell me as soon as rutting possible, because I would have ran up here naked if I had known! Sound the alarm!"

Wash opened a concealed hatch in the wall. Inside it was a lever with a red handle. He looked exchanged glances with the captain, then pulled. The pulling of the lever released a loud alarm and a series of bright red lights throughout the ship.

"When did this happen?" Mal asked.

"Only a couple of minutes ago- I… I was up here and I kind of, you know… dozed off-" Wash explained. Mal growled, "And when I woke up, I saw this. I didn't issue the alarm right away, well, because we don't know what this could be. It could be a simulation, I mean- this, _really_ this is impossible right? I didn't want to cause a panic,"

"A panic seems a little necessary in this situation… but your right. We don't know if this is what it looks like quite yet," Mal looked back at the disturbing yet beautiful sight. "We need to talk to the whole crew. We seem at a safe distance for now. But that won't last forever." He began to walk out of the room.

Before he could, Kaylee, who had been silently staring this whole time, lightly seized him by them arm, still looking at what was outside.

"Cap'n… That can't be what it looks like right? I mean… a black hole? That's impossible…" She looked at Mal, "Right?"

Mal looked into her eyes for a second with a look so stone, that one might not be able to notice the fear in his eyes. Then, he left, without saying a word.

By the time Mal reached the meeting area of the ship, the whole crew was there, in a loud distress.

"How could this possibly be my fault?" Jayne shouted.

"I don't know! You-you have a way of attracting bad situations," Simon reasoned.

"Look, I don't think your fighting is the most efficient thing we could be doing right now," Zoey chimed in.

"Right because sitting here doing nothing is the answer!" Jayne yelled at Zoey. She gave him a stern look.

"It's a hell of a lot better than-" Zoey was interrupted.

"EVERYONE QUIET DOWN!" Mal shouted. The voices ceased, and the room's focus turned to the captain.

"We have a situation," Mal started, "We are approaching what appears to be… a black hole," He exhaled.

Almost simultaneously, everyone's jaw dropped. Silence hung over the room like raw meat in a butchery. River, who had been kneeling silently in the corner the whole time, cut through the silence.

"Pretty teeth," She let out with a giggle, but then her tone darkened, "Unattractive foreheads."

As usual, nobody paid any attention to river's outrageous, insanity riddled comments.

"Wash," Zoey said flatly, "Is this true?"

"Well we can't be sure. I mean, the closest black hole to our latest coordinates is in the V4641 SGR sector, which is currently 1,548 light years away," Wash sighed, "This is impossible, unless…"

"Unless what blondie?" Jayne interjected.

"Unless there was a malfunction with our imperium motus, which controls our maneuverability when we are in coast- But that can't be. Our imperium moderator is doing fine," Mal explained for Wash.

"Dammit…" Kaylee said, looking down at the floor.

"Kaylee…" Mal questioned. Everyone moved their glares to her. "Is there something you would like to tell us?"

"I heard a sound tonight…" Kaylee looked up at Mal, "I know what it was now. The imperium moderator, it came off. Its tumbling around the engines now, gaining more wear and tear by the minute."

"Can you fix it?" Mal questioned. Kaylee shook her head.

"Wouldn't matter. I don't know much about space cap'n, but I do know that we're orbiting right now, but once we reach the photon sphere…" Kaylee Gulped, "We're toast."

"If we haven't reached the photon sphere yet," Simon chimed in. He turned to Wash, "Do you think we could get out before we do?"

"Well, if we have in fact been moving all night, then we're not going to have enough fuel to pull us out of the gravitational field,"

A moment of silence dropped, as everyone mulled over the situation.

"Could we just go into the black hole?" Asked the Inara, "I have been told that it acts like a wormhole, setting you in a different part of space."

"Even traveling past the speed of light, it would be centuries before we reached the singularity," Wash shrugged nervously, "Not to mention that by that point, our bodies would somewhat resemble toothpaste being pushed out of the tube."

"Wonderful," Simon said sarcastically, slumping down on a large box of cargo, "So we're humped, is what you're saying,"

"Not exactly," Wash let out with a nervous chuckle. He paused for a moment and then looked up at the rest of the crew. "Anyone got any ideas?"

Everyone looked at each other. Silence. Wash looked back at Simon.

"All right. Yeah. We're humped."


	4. Chapter 4

"What is it?" asked Giles, "What do you see?"

Xander attempted to make out words from what he had saw, but after several short failed attempts, he ignored the question and darted to the front door. Opening it, he looked out as to confirm what he had seen. He gulped.

"Guys… You might just want to come and see it for yourself." he concluded.

The six of them crowded in the doorway, gaping at the sight. It was impossible, unimaginable, unbelievable, even for them. It was a spaceship.

The humongous craft had slid deep into the newly redone dark pavement on the road. It had uprooted large chunks of old Sunnydale asphalt, and left a trail of destruction far down the california streetline.

Fear shot through the group. Since New Sunnydale was built, they had been the very few people to actually move back to the town. Stories of Old Sunnydale had been told, retold, and told again throughout all of the western US, so it wasn't a surprise when it wasn't a hit town after it's reopening. This rendered the street they lived on extremely desolate and eerie, and most definitely not the most ideal setting for a situation like this.

Without saying a word, the group slowly eased their way out of the house, and just several feet closer to get a good look while maintaining a nonthreatening distance from this unknown phenomenon. Then the soft questioning of the situation ensued.

"What is it?"

"Where does it come from?"

"What does it want in Sunnydale?"

"Is it a demon?"

"Is it from space?"

Buffy let out a deep breath and said, "Theres only one way to find out." And like a soldier called to duty, Buffy marched towards the smoking wreckage left on the street. Xander exhaled loudly, shook his head, and mumbled,

"I need some new friends." And then trudged along in her direction. The rest of the group followed.

"If this is the end of the world again," muttered Robin to himself, "I need a new hobby."

Kennedy walked up so she was alongside Willow.

"I thought we came back to sunnydale to avoid this kind of stuff," She said, "Retired monster fighters plus retired hellmouth equals happiness all around? Remember?"

"Yeah that was the plan," sighed Willow, "But when potential evil falls from the sky into our street, all bets are off."

"That's quite upsetti-"

"Guys!" Shouted Buffy, "Look at this!"

The group sprinted up to Buffy, who was standing by the burning wreckage.

"SERENITY," She read off of the chipping font on the side of the ship.

"That's ironic," Xander said, "It doesn't seem too serene to me."

Giles made his way around the vessel, inspecting every inch with his classic furrowed brow. He pushed his glasses closer to his eyes and inspected the subtext under the name.

"Firefly class vessel…" He recited, almost as if it was a question.

Robin stepped closer and asked in a monotonic fashion , "Does that mean…"

"A spaceship…" Buffy interjected, "It's a spaceship isn't it?" She look ed at Giles, who looked down at his shoes, back at the ship, and then to Buffy.

"W-Well, yes. Quite possibly. But we have no idea if it's real, if it's a hoax, where it comes from, or really anything for that matter. So we should be careful. We shouldn't touch it, we shouldn't be near it, for all we know we shouldn't be looking at it." Giles stated. Everyone stood in silence for a moment, contemplating this.

"I think we should go inside," Said Xander.

"Oh my lord please tell me you're joking," Giles said grimly.

"There's obviously a hatch inside right there," Xander said, pointing to a circular door shape on the ship, "And aren't you even a little curious?"

"Well excuse me if I don't have this sinister death wish that you so seem to-"

Giles was interrupted by a large booming sound that everyone could easily trace to inside the ship.

A louder sounded, causing everyone to flinch.

An even one shook the streets, and they all slowly backed away.

A final, nearly deafening boom echoed throughout all of Sunnydale, and if the town was populated whatsoever, there would have been a great panic. With this boom, the hatch that Xander had mentioned crumpled to a paperlike heap on the ground, causing a cascade of smoke to pour out.

If the group wasn't so shocked, they might have panicked at this point.

After several seconds, a humanlike figure emerged from within the smoke, wearing what appeared to be a space suit. More figures emerged, until there seemed to be eight intimidatory space men standing outside the burning wreckage.

The group was in too much shock to move or speak.

The first figure that exited slowly removed their modern looking helmets to reveal-to the groups surprise- a human male, with scruffy brown hair and a wide jawline.

"Oh," Said the man, smiling, "I didn't really expect people. I'm captain Malcolm Reynolds. This is serenity," He said, motioning to the crew and flaming ship behind him. "Mind if we chill here for a little while?"


	5. Chapter 5

After the crew's frightening realization, everyone had taken their posts, and prepared for whatever inevitable doom lied ahead. Simon had wanted to be with Kaylee, leaving River with the Shepherd.

"The tree was sad. Then the dawn came. And it's better now… no thanks to Faith," River mumbled. The last word caught Shepherd's attention.

"Faith isn't always a bad thing, River," Shepherd replied.

"No," River shook her head, chuckling. "Not your faith," The shepherd shook it off. They sat in silence for several minutes.

"You know River," Shepherd let out, "We're in a pretty tough situation right now-" River cut him off, laughing hysterically.

"Situation," River giggled, "Odds are 1 to 149.2 million. We'll be okay though." River said, just before letting out another great fit of laughter.

That comment was not as comforting as the shepherd might have hoped, although it was more reassuring coming from River than anyone else. After all, River seemed to be right about everything. The shepherd began to chuckle to himself as well.

"I suppose you're right. I have faith," He pronounced. When he said this, River let out a huge bout of laughter.

"Ha- We'll be five by five," She managed to giggle out.

Before the two could laugh again any more, Simon burst in, with a forced smile on his face.

"Wash and Kaylee have a plan," He gasped out.

Everyone made it back to the main deck together, the entire crew. Like before, Kaylee, Wash, and Mal stood facing the small crowd.

"Okay everyone," Mal announced, "Tell them the plan," he said, gesturing to Wash. He nodded in response.

"We've got a plan. It's tricky, reckless, and it has a 1 in a hundred million chance of working. But hey, what other chance do we have?"

Shepherd looked at River, who was staring dazedly at the ceiling.

"Okay…" Inara let out, "I'll be the one to ask. What's the plan?"

"Well, we don't have a lot of juice. But, if we use up all of our extra fuel at once before we enter the photon sphere (not including life support) then we could use the gravitational pull as a slingshot to get us far away from here. Kaylee will man the engines and divert any extra fuel to the proton thrusters" Wash paused and looked at Kaylee, who nodded back, "And everyone else just can stay at their post and… Hope." He paused and looked at the crowd, "Who's in?"

For a moment, everyone stood silently. Then, Zoey, with a nervous but desperate look in her eyes, raised her hand. Then Jayne, begrudgedly lifted his arm. Pretty soon the whole crew had their hands raised. Wash's eyes lit up.

"Wonderful. Now, we have to start this right away, we are gaining on it by the second," Wash let out, clapping his hands together.

Everyone dispersed, and regained their posts. Mal, Wash, Zoey and Inara went to the bridge, Simon, The Shepherd, and River stayed in the medical bay, and Kaylee went back to the engine room.

The bridge seemed quiet, despite the situation. While everyone's heart was pounding rapidly, they all somehow made their breathing seem almost silent, as started at what they were facing.

Then, Zoey cut through the silence with a voice so sharp, she didn't recognize it at first.

"So..." She lingered on she word, "What _is_ our plan?" She and Mal looked at Wash, who stared blankly at the control board for several seconds before replying.

"Well… We need to wait until we reach the farest inner ring of the photon sphere, and then try to pull out vertically…" Wash trailed off.

"... But…" Mall interjected. Wash sighed.

" But… This has never been attempted before. Not on record at least. And… going by what my trusty boards here have told me, we have a 50% chance of being incinerated by friction, and... a 50% chance the neurons in our brain evaporating due to speed," Wash let out.

"So. Why did we go with this option?" Mal asked.

"Its slightly more dignified than reaching the singularity and being crushed into an object with an infinite density." Wash chuckled. Mall exhaled and nodded.

"Excelent. So when is our imminent doom scheduled for?" Asked Mal.

"3 minutes," Wash turned to Zoey. "Can you get the word out honey?" She nodded and then walked away.

"Inara," Mal said, "Why don't you go back to your quarters?"

She looked into his eyes for a moment of silent communication. He let out a breath, looked down, and nodded in understanding.

"We're accelerating Captain," Wash said, "We're almost ready to pull her out."

Zoey returned to Wash's side. She knelt down by his side and put her hand on his arm in reassurance. He looked over at her and she could see the fear and hesitation in his eyes.

"You can do this," She said firmly.

He returned his vision to the sight in front of him.

"Past the sound barrier, approaching the light barrier," He announced while adjusting and tugging at instruments, "Thing's are gonna get dicey here kids."

The ship started to vibrate and shake violently as they increased velocity. Wash began to count down.

"7 seconds, 4, 3, 2,-"

They had reached the light barrier. Everything became fuzzy and confusing, every image left trails and inconsistent dimensions. You could no longer think or reason.

"PULL US OUT WASH!" shouted Mal with struggle.

**Wash pulled an ominous looking lever with vigor, and then before they could understand it, everything was silent. **


End file.
